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“Make sure it’s tight,” I murmured.
That earned me an eye roll. “I might not have gone to medical school, but I know compression stops bleeding.”
Those sure fingers worked on the cut. I focused on how pleasant it felt to have her nearby. This was a huge clusterfuck. Briana should be on a plane, flying back to safety. Hell! She shouldn’t even have been out here in the first place. But selfish bastard that I was, I was loving every second she lingered close.
The blast of my phone sounded through the truck’s Bluetooth. I punched a button on the steering wheel, and clipped out in Russian, “Yes? This isn’t a good time.”
“You’ve got a tail, goat,” Sophia responded dryly.
Briana brightened at hearing her friend’s voice. Mercifully, she didn’t get the gist of our conversation, even if she understood the literal words.
“What vehicle am I looking for, Soph?” I asked, choosing to keep the language barrier in place to delay further panic from Briana as long as possible.
“Off-white service van. No decals, no plates.”
We were speeding forward, but it was going to be a good fifteen minutes before we got into territory the Serbs wouldn’t risk.
“Do you want me to call up the men?” Sophia asked.
“Soph?” Briana murmured.
“Oh, saints! Bri, honey, it’s going to be okay. Just trust my brother and dowhateverhe tells you,” Sophia said in English. “Vik?”
“No, I’ll handle it,” I clipped out, and disconnected the call.
Briana’s palm crashed into the center consol. “I’m absolutelysickof all this secrecy!” she shouted. “What the hell is going on, Viktor? One minute you’re pushing me onto a plane, the next you’re bleeding and fleeing. I deserve to know what’s going on. And why do you have a gun?”
What do I tell her?I ground my molars. I didn’t want Briana to find out, both for her safety and so that she continued to see me a certain way. But those options were fast disappearing.
I drove on, careful not to speed, and did another sweep of the traffic. So far, it remained clear.
“Viktor—explain yourself. Now!”
There was fire in her eyes; I could feel it. But a sucker for pain, I wanted a taste. I held her gaze in the mirror for two breaths. “I own a gun to protect myself, my family, and my men.”
“Construction workers?” she spat out, the skepticism heavy.
“It’s a legitimate business,” I evaded.
Briana was smart. Her mind was already spinning miles ahead of this conversation. The truth was right there; all I needed to do was confirm it. Internally cursing, I looked out the side mirror. A flash of white caught my attention. The service van shouldn’t be moving that fast. Sure enough, there weren’t any plates on it.Shit....I palmed my gun. These idiots were actually going to engage in broad daylight on a busy highway!
“Buckle up, suits,” I ordered, trusting the tightness in my gut. That van was angling right into my blind spot.
To my surprise, Briana obeyed.
Flooring the gas, I wove to the right, cutting in front of a semi. The eighteen-wheeler blared its horn, but I was already shooting into the lane to the right of it. With the shipping container on my left and the shoulder of the highway on my right, I kept the speed even.
The van slid behind the semi and came up on my tail.
“Duck!” I roared.
Bullets sprayed, and the rear glass fractured. The heavy-duty material wasn’t military grade, and the second burst of fire caused it to explode into the interior. The Toyota in front of me was going a cunt’s hair under the speed limit so the semi pulled ahead. Trapping us.
I looked ahead and saw a tight stretch of shoulder before we hit an overpass. Muttering a prayer to the saints and the Virgin, I floored the gas once more. Tearing forward, the truck rumbled onto the shoulder. I buzzed past the Toyota, but the overpass came up fast. Sucking in a sharp breath, I slid back into the lane. The trailer hitch grazed on the Toyota’s bumper. Horns blared, then bullets shot over the economy car, riddling my tailgate and frame and even popping into the truck’s interior. These Serbs were insane! They were risking the law cracking down on us over a highway shoot-out.
Mercifully, the moment we were over the pass, the Toyota dove onto the shoulder. But that meant the service van was free to speed up to my truck.
Distracted, I didn’t realize Briana had crawled forward. The gun slid from under my thigh. “What the hell?!” I raged.
